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Canada will likely pin its Olympic women’s hopes — top-8 finishes the modest goal — on a couple of teenagers.

Kaetlyn Osmond, just turned 18, held firm in defending her national title at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships here Saturday, unspooling a clean long program performed to
Cleopatra
. The surprise is that tiny jump powerhouse Gabriel Daleman, 16 on Monday, leapt past floundering veteran Amelie Lacoste to win silver.

“The new generation is coming up and I’m glad to be a part of it,” said Osmond.

Actually, Daleman was on the silver podium in 2013, her first year competing as a senior at Canadians, though she still competes on the Junior Grand Prix Circuit and was the 2012 junior national champion.

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But the outcome at nationals 12 months ago was considered something of an anomaly, with pals from juniors — Alaine Chartrand the other — finishing 1-2-3, while Lacoste slipped to fourth. Now training under jump guru Christy Krall, it was expected Lacoste would show an improved, more confident quality of skating. Instead she blew apart in her long program, popping a triple flip, doubling a Lutz, and double-footing two other landings.

That plunged the 24-year-old from second after the short to fifth in the long and third overall for bronze.

It will be up to Skate Canada to decide whether Lacoste deserves a ticket to Sochi, where Canada can send two women single skaters for this first time 1994. The ruling body has made unilateral decisions before and ignored national results. But it’s doubtful that will happen this year.

The Olympic team will be formally revealed on Sunday.

Daleman, who admitted she’s pretty much all-skating all-the-time — offering “physio” and “stretching” as two activities that fill the non-skating hours — put up a dynamic performance, with a huge triple-Lutz-triple-toe combination to open, followed by a double-Axel-triple-toe, a lovely (and back-torturing) Biellmann spin, then a second double Axel and triple-jump combo.

She was thrilled with her free skate mark of 124.09, 182.47 overall.

“I was not expecting that score at all,” she claimed afterward. “I was not even focused on it from the beginning.”

Her previous best score for the free skate was 174.

She’d been caught by cameras closely watching Lacoste’s error-riddled performance. With every error, Daleman’s route to Sochi became clearer. She would probably be the youngest figure skater at the Games.

“I was a little nervous going in, knowing what’s on the line with Sochi. But I talked to myself, calmed myself down, knowing that I know how to do this.

“I approached the program knowing that I’ve done it every day. I have some difficult tricks with two triple-triples, but I knew I needed the stuff to get it done.

Daleman refused to jump the gun on her Sochi prospects.

“I’m second so there could be a spot for Sochi; there could not. It’s not definite. I won’t know anything till tomorrow. But I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it will be a great birthday present for me.”

Her “senior” teammate and friend, Osmond, skated exquisitely, cutting a graceful and dewy figure on the ice compared to the risque characterization showcased in
Sweet Charity
.

“I’m very proud of it,” the dark-eyed beauty from Marystown, Nfld., told reporters, over-the-moon with a score of 136.94, 207.24 overall. “It’s the first time I’ve done an actual clean program in competition for a long program. So I’m super-excited and . . . still in shock.”

Osmond, who now lives and trains in Edmonton, has been plagued by injury this past season, first a stress fracture in her ankle, then a torn hamstring that forced her to pull out halfway through Skate Canada in late October. She then withdrew from Cup of Russia as well, so had nothing to show from the Grand Prix circuit and had to qualify for nationals at Skate Canada Challenge.

With a nine-point lead over Lacoste after the short, Osmond didn’t have much to worry about. Yet she started shaking before taking to the ice today.

“When the music started, it’s just like everything went away, like I was back home and just practising in my own rink with my friends skating around me. It just felt perfect.”

Her
Cleopatra
program silhouettes a ripened skater and, says Osmond, the narrative also reflects her own life recently.

Correction - January 13, 2014:
This article was edited from a previous version that missatated Kaetlyn Osmond's age.

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